St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-06-08

IN Il nOmenOn of being
~ 3 e4sy1 politically at rest.
R a asm|lf The old party war
vi III, horses and the
M II VIZ young ones who
Z VA ~ have followed lat
y NJ nv ( terly in their wake
49, N@ have all be taken
:::::ZS@ .ssA - hemselVes to
doubling their as
=: sets in the real eS-
~ tate business. Such
q state of things may be for the better,
but an all-seeing eye can only foresee
what kind of an earthquake shall shake
the local political world in another year.
! These verify be the days for meditation
and recalling old familiar characters.
| Who cannot cast a retrospective glance
| to the red-hOt times between '67 and '76,
when the city was ruled by the great
''seXtate?' The seXtate was composed
| of six famous oracleS, whose names for
| familiarity compare well with the in
God we trust of the almighty dollar.
but whose characters present more con-
sistency than the smile just used.
Uline, S. Lee Davis, r. A. Smith, w.
p. Murray and Jim King. Barney
| Armstrong was considered as the
BULLS EYE OF THE RING,
and the boys used to say: Lets beat
| Barney Armstrong, and We'll bust the
| ring" Bob Smith was of course the
| great power behind the throne, and Mr.
Murray was the general who planned
the campaign, while King, Davis and
Uline were sort of grand viZierS. They
| all looked over the ground, put their
heads together, planned and fought to-
! gether glOriouSly in harmony, and inva-
III a in1 70 low
Armstrong was clerk of courts, Lee
Davis county auditor and Cal Uline
county treasurer. Poor Cal was the
| first to so under. About '76 he was
beaten by ii. NJ. Rice, the candidate
Of the Peoples Party" as the profess
eddy religious combination was called
Mr.. Rice served one term and part of
another, when the late county treasurer,
| W. L. Burton, was appointed to serve
the uneXpired portion. Cal halls from
New York. from the vicinity of Roches-
! ter, ard is now the noted colonizer of
| Devils Lake, Oak. Barney Armstrong
| best wire puller of the city, and he is
one of the few men who have made poll
tics pay. He showed up from Ohio
along in the fifties, and his venerable
face may still frequently be seen, and
there is no man in the city who can con-
vey more dignity in his bearing.
s. Lee Davis has lapsed entirely into
the real estate business. He is an old
Marylander and for years was county
auditor, filling his Office with credit to
himself and everybody else. He
must have served five terms
altogether. His strength was in
his great social popularity among the
''boys." Few men can show better
record since as an official or plain gem
tleman than S. Lee Davis. w. p. Muir
ray, whose record dates back to the earl
lest days, has been crowned the
king OF POLITICIANS"
and those who know him are willing to
cede to him that title. When mere
boy he came up from Indiana, land be-
tween then and now for the thirty-two
years that / have been in the city," saws
an old pioneer, sits a cold day when
Bill Murray gets left" He soon came
to the front as a lawyer of unusual abil-
ity. He has been in the legislature,
was a delegate to the constitu-
tiOnal convention. and has been
member of the county board, and in 1855
council. Judge John B. Brisbine sue
ceeding him after the apportionment of
that year. The prese: and for long
time past, city attorney ran for Judge
in 1858, but the dissatisfied lawyers
couldn't stand that. SO they put up Z. C.
Palmer, and then was recorded the only
defeat Mr.. Murray ever suffered.
slaughtered mercilesSly in his own
camp. He and jim King vet survive
among the active local sachems, and
during the last campaign they did some
of their best work.
Jim King is one of the Whitest Irish
jI1ro md
foot upon Yankee dirt. His grocery
business dates away back. AS sheriff
and as chief of police he has shown him.
self a most efficient public officer. And
jim King has done what many another
politician fails to dO-he has stayed in
the fighting ranks long after partaking
of the spoilS of victory. To go
down to his livery stable and
look at his snowy hair and
bronZed cOuntenance would be enough
to convince the average man that Mr..
King was one of the quieteSt business
men in the city, but to see and hear him
in the secret councils of his party, is to
admire him for his ShrewdneSS and. if
the paradox be admitted, for his disin-
terested interest.
The other Sachem of the old ''seX-
tate," Bob Smith, is like Bill Murray
everlaStingly on top. Mayor Smith is
known far and wide as the great in
vincible of the Fourth ward" and the
man who ever attempted to oppose Mr..
Smith has always enjoyed the unStinted
compassion of every voting citizen.
Every object of charity has found in Mr..
Smith sort of private bank, open on
demand, and he has accustomed himself
to bear the annOyances of office-holding
as if they were all tokens of a public
blessing. He is not anxious for political
favorS, but ''the boys" want to win the
day, and to do so the name of bob
Smith" must be inscribed upon their
banners. There is no man more popu-
lar with and more widely esteemed by
all classes than the present mayor of st.
Paul.
Away back in the "fifties," and dur
ing the following decade, there were
several famous ward politicians who ev-
identity had things all their own way.
UNCLE JOHNNY O'CoNNOR
was the big boss of the Second ward He
was burly blonde with light red hair,
and voice like lions. The old O'Con-
nor hotel, on East Fourth street still
stands as a monument of the mah who
did just what he pleased with the
.'Bloody Second" as it was then called,
although recently the very strong adj
iective has been applied the Sixth ward.
the former stronghold of the mighty Jere
Mccarthy. Jere Mccarthy had the
same control in the Sixth that Uncle
Johnny held in the Second. Both men
antedated 1857, although for long time